The Most Overlooked Way to Connect with Your Child

The Most Overlooked Way to Connect with Your Child
How often have you seen a parent walking with a child and looking down at their mobile phone? Have you thought about how this may be a missed opportunity to connect?

When you are with a child, every moment is a chance to connect and our moments seem ever harder to find with parent and child occupied with school, work, play, social media, grabbing a snack, getting where we want to go in a hurry.

But with kids, there is no time like the present. Eye contact is what they crave. It only takes a moment to let a child know you care, by stopping whatever you may be focused on (except when driving!) and looking into their eyes.

This simple task is the most overlooked way to connect with a child. And yet it is the simplest and the quickest. And it has the added benefit of putting you the parent in touch with your parental love.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes we even avoid eye contact with a child because we know instinctively that it will change our focus and reset our priorities in an instant?

It is a lot easier to say no if we avoid eye contact, if we can tell ourselves the child is bothering us, being unreasonable, can wait a minute, or can take care of him or herself.

But what they want most in that moment is to know they are top priority. And a warm look into their eyes can empower them like nothing else to wait, or to find their own amusement, or to solve their own problems.

You may find this simple step can save you all kinds of time talking, consoling, making excuses, fixing problems, and so on. If a child knows they are tops with you, their confidence soars and they feel more capable, independent, and yes happy.

Randy's Take Home Tip: Next time you heave a sigh and wonder how you will ever get everything done if your child wants your attention one more time, give her or him the gift of your direct undivided attention, demonstrated by your warm glance into their eyes. Love doesn't wait. It is only now. I knew I had to write my first parenting book when its title came into my mind: "You Can Postpone Anything But Love."

Please visit my brand new website designed to connect you with the best tools on the planet for creating the life you want with your child. http://www,parenthoodtools.com.

And tell me what you think!  

Aiming at better life balance for 2013?

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Have you resolved to find a better life balance in 2013? How often do we hear about the challenges modern families face with both parents working outside the home and still trying to maintain a close-knit and happy family life? Finding a balance between your roles as parent and active participant in the workplace is one of the greatest sources of everyday stress for families today. My guest this week is not only an expert on the subject but is a personal example of how to manage this balancing act. A health educator for over 30 years, Sharon Weinstein is an energetic, motivating and highly skilled nurse, nurse educator and consultant specializing in workplace wellness, corporate training programs and motivational speaking presentations. Among many other roles, she also was advisor to Central Clinical Hospital, Moscow, Russia for twelve years while raising her family and oversaw the building of a western-style International Patient Department. Among her many writings, Sharon’s book B Is for Balance is all about this issue. Listen in! Just click on the link above or this one to go direct to show, and listen online or download to any device!

http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/54025/creative-tips-for-finding-life-balance

This is a recording of a previous live interview but deserves repeating! Life balance can often be a continuing challenge today.

Randy Rolfe Take Home Tips: The more parenting time and effort you dedicate in the early years of your child's life the less worry and effort it will take as the child matures. The bonding, modeling, communication, and attention to basic needs which happen in a close parent child relationship in the first months and years are irreplaceable. Simplify your child's life and your own by keeping parenting high priority in you life balance plan. Learn more in my book The Seven Secrets of Successful Parents, available everywhere.

Why Do Powerful Men Risk It All?

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Why would powerful men like General David Petraeus cheat and risk so much? We are often puzzled when famous men who seem to have it all, like public acclaim, professional success, and a loving family, throw away their career, marriage, and reputation by having an affair. Ironically, these affairs rarely turn into long-lasting relationships. Fear of infidelity plagues many marriages today.

My guest this week on “Family First,” is Terri Orbuch PhD, a marriage expert and director of a landmark 25-year, NIH government-funded study of marriage and divorce. Popularly known as "The Love Doctor," Dr. Orbuch will explain how powerful men are especially vulnerable to common traps that jeopardize marriages. She will share the 5 reasons why powerful men cheat and how power creates blind spots when it comes to self-scrutiny. Past President of the International Association for Relationship Research, she will give us some important insights into keeping a marriage safe and healthy.

To hear the program, simply click on the link above or on this link: http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first, Friday at 1 pm PT, 2 pm MT, 3 pm CT, 4 pm ET, or any time afterwards online, or on podcast or apps.

Terri Orbuch PhD is a bestselling author, professor, and popular love advisor on TV, radio, and the web. She is a psychologist, a nationally known research scientist at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, and an Oakland University professor. Dr. Terri Orbuch has studied the marriage, divorce, romance, and relationship patterns of thousands of individuals nationwide for over 25 years. She blogs for Huffington Post and Next Avenue among others, and has a 20-year marriage and family therapy practice in Detroit.

Dr. Orbuch’s newest book is “Finding Love Again: 6 Simple Steps to a New and Happy Relationship.” She is also author of “5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great” and several other books. Dr. Orbuch has created bedside inspirations-at-a- glance books and marriage enrichment workshops. Dr. Terri Orbuch has published over 40 articles; been quoted in such national publications as USA Today, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Reader's Digest.

To hear the program, simply click on  the link above or this link: http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1916/family-first, Friday at 1 pm PT, 2 pm MT, 3 pm CT, 4 pm ET, or any time afterwards online, or on podcast or apps.

Randy Rolfe Take Home Tips: The fidelity and commitment between the spouses at the head of a family is not only a stabililzing force for all family members. It also serves as a model for future relationships as well as a safe haven from the compleixities of life constantly portrayed in our media. Time spent communicating, listening, sharing, empathizing, and understanding with your spouse is never a waste of time.

Protecting your kids from cell phone dangers

Family First | VoiceAmerica™

Today there are five billion cell phones in use. 80% of Europeans use them and 50% of Americans, more every day. With reports of health risks from cell phone radiation mounting, including a recent WHO report linking their use to cancer, industry giants still deny any problem. Are we damaging our kids by letting them use cell phones at an early age? Are we risking our own health?

 My guest this week on Family First is Shelly Kalnitsky. Kalnitsky compares where we are now with cell phones to where we used to be with cigarettes, believing industry assertions that nicotine was non-addictive and smoking didn’t cause cancer. Do we really want “radiation” and “microwaves” going into our child’s brain? After 10 years studying the data, Kalnitsky says we can’t know the long term effects yet, but there is enough evidence to warrant serious concern. He will describe the studies, the increased risks for children, how industry misinforms, how hand-free is no safer, and ways to minimize harm.

Click on the above link to hear Family First, live this Friday at 1PM PT/2PM MT/3PM CT/4PM ET, or any time afterwards for on demand or download.

Just over ten years ago, Shelly Kalnitsky was watching ABC’s 20/20 show in his home in South Florida when he saw a feature story on the potential risks of cell phone usage. The show included lobbyists and wireless representatives who all denied a problem. Compelled to learn more, he researched the world news regarding cell phones and discovered that information abroad included many studies conducted by prominent scientists who reached very different conclusions from what we were hearing in the U.S.

He established the Cell Phone Radiation News Bureau (www.cprnews.com), a one-stop information center to inform consumers about the potential health risks from cell and cordless phones and to help prevent future health problems. .He took his knowledge a step further by developing a device which helps reduce phone radiation. He now gets requests from around the world and from news media and marketing groups to find out more about his findings and about his unique, simple-to-use product.  

To hear Kalnitsky's important information, click on the above link for Family First, at 1PM PT/4PM ET this Friday, April 20th or any time after on demand or download.

Randy Rolfe's Take Home Tips: Smart phones seem a great way to stay in touch with your kids in this busy life where every family member is going in a different direction. But phones are no substitute for face to face interaction and time spent just being together. Nor can they substitute for parents learning ahead of time what their children's plans are and encouraging children to stick to their plans. Children need to learn to relate to other people through facial expression, tone, eye contact, handshakes and so on before they move on to electronic communication. Their future relationships depend on the basic skills they learn in their first 7 years.